Physical

Assessment and management of physical symptoms is a major focus of palliative care, as poorly controlled pain or nausea can seriously affect a patient's quality of life. It can also reduce their ability to maintain physical functioning which then affects all aspects of their daily life. Symptoms in this section include items from the symptom assessment scale [1] used in the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaborative.

Appetite Problems: Includes cachexia anorexia syndrome, appetite stimulants and artificial nutrition
Breathing: Includes dyspnoea, cough, respiratory secretions, haemoptysis and obstruction
Constipation: Includes laxatives
Delirium: Includes pharmacological and non pharmacological management
Fatigue
Nausea: Includes antiemetics and bowel obstruction
Pain
Sleeping problems
End-of-life care

The pages are developed following an examination of the research evidence for the symptom as described in systematic reviews relevant to the topic. The systematic reviews were identified following a search for topic based systematic reviews in four databases - OvidSP MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Embase.

Reference

Kristjanson LJ, Pickstock S, Yuen K, Davis S, Blight J, Cummins A, et al. Development and testing of the revised Symptom Assessment Scale: Final report. Perth; Edith Cowan University: 1999.

This page was created on 14 May 2008
Last updated 23 February 2009